Anything with moving parts and then you move it as well, is susceptible to problems. The nVme idea is better though fragile in its own way if not looked after properly. It's not like any H/W manufacturer guarantees their products for much more than a year. Samsung are pretty good there but that said, mobile data storage and integrity has undergone the same issues you are experiencing for decades.
The LaCie's in the solid metal enclosures I have are still going ten years later. I am never going to say this is better than that. Nobody can. Honestly, I believe I have simply been lucky.

HDD's and SSD's are almost like a car. You can get one that will last almost half of your life and others that perpetually fail or do not last at all. Someone has likely suggested dumping it all to a cloud and carrying a near empty drive that you can download to when needed. My only issue with that is while it is certainly secure, comparatively, it is dog slow compared to copying HDD/SSD ---> HDD/SSD.
Get what works best for your needs is probably the only choice and maybe get two where one is a clone? Who knows?

If you only need a maximum of 2Gb per session, perhaps cloud is the right solution. Anything more than that is too slow. Dump it once and retrieve forever... (if under 2Gb). I imagine Internet will get even faster so this may change too.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jul 9, 2024

np, one thing I forgot to mention, which could come in handy, (has for me!), is to get some drive cataloging/indexing software (I'm not sure which is best for your OS right now), and those old drives you have kicking around, just hook them up and scan them... as obviously it's not in the cards right now to buy a bunch of drives to back them ALL up etc, but at least knowing what's on them in a searchable database etc can be quite helpful in locating stuff across time and different drives obviously...

 

I never like saying "This is the best" to anyone.
Again, however, these I find solid, tanky and reliable. The reason I never say it is in case you get the one in ten thousand that is not. Rare, but this brand I have had zero issues with. It's in the size you mentioned. They make a rugged model for lots of moving around...Cheers


P.S. You probably can get cheaper drives but these are reliable by default, you get what you pay for.
https://www.lacie.com/as/en/products/mobile-drive/

 

I did not know about Virtual Volumes View (VVV)...
I was thinking of using Everything https://www.voidtools.com for indexing, cataloging, and search. Some settings need to be tweaked but it works for offline volumes as well.
I may try VVV, but it is no longer being developed.

To achieve the same goal as VVV, one would use the File Lists feature in Everything.
https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/file_lists/

 

Last edited: Jul 9, 2024

with nowadays prices, I'd take a look at 1TB or even 2TB SSD options, you get multiple times higher lifespan (obviously, because more cells to rewrite) while not costing multiple times more, something like Samsung T7 or T5 Evo would be nice, no?

 

It's also insane how fast you can fill one!

I was checking out some new Kontakt libraries since my last system and whatnot, and one day last month I believe dl'd over 1.2TB in a single day ffs (fiber rules...) with Spitfire 250GB single libraries and whatnot.... sigh... and with the bevy over on sister site, and the fact that a lot of these devs love to bloat libraries as they think customers are stupid enough to equate size with worth/value and whatnot...

Most of it I'm gonna chuck most likely, but I have probably ~8TB or more (more likely a lot more) of damn Kontakt libraries ffs... and I don't need that.

I've been piling up my own samples and whatnot from sessions over the decades, and right now I'm just figuring out what's best for "me", what's important for 'legacy projects', and the rest,.... well, like with damn sample collections, how many kick drums does one need? I was fine with just 20 before on my emax and samplecell or akai or whatever, and would just sculpt the envelope and filter/eq etc to what I needed. How or why I have millions of damn kick drums now is absurd, as I could spend the next 19 years listening to them sequentially and nothing else I imagine, and it ain't gonna write me a song lol....

having fewer options of quality curated sounds and instruments and fx etc I know well = economy of workflow and speed for me, I don't need to procrastinate decisions... commit, and move on..

But of course I like to check out new toys,... because.. well.. that's what we do.. and sometimes they hit the "inspiration" button dead on...

But on my system drive, I'm quick to pull out the uninstaller and have nonsense be gone...

 

External SSD is the best solution for keeping your data secure since you are on the move constantly. SSDs have no moving parts mate. Nowadays their endurance is high enough especially on premium ssds. Also speed is much better than mechanical drives. Anything you choose on 2 or 4TB capacity between Samsung T9 (certified drop proof), Crucial X10 Pro and Sandisk Extreme Pro will do the job fine and they'll give you a rough 1.5-2 gb/s transfers (USB 3.2 2x2). Not too shabby right? All of them come with 5 years warranty.
Cheers

 

Last edited: Jul 9, 2024

at really tight budget, I'd really go for generic 2.5" USB 3.0 (= 3.2 gen1) enclosure and whatever cheapest highest capacity SATA SSD you can find,
I briefly checked local stores, and there are already few 2TB SATA SSDs just below 100€ so you should totally be able to find 1TB under 70€

 

If you are looking for cheap, efficient drives, check out "Lexar" drives, they are quite good

 

We're all different, but if it was me, I'd be retrieving my data and storing it on a local HDD/SSD in the interim. I'd wait until I could afford something more. That's dependent on whether the space is there to retrieve I suppose. That's only what I would do.

 

Currentky, I"m using Fanxiang chinese SSD from amazon. You can find a 1TB for nearly 60€.
As i have to move constantly my data from office to home et vice versa, I have found a mini-raid enclosure (Isheep USB3.0 also on amazon: 36€) and put 2 SSD in it, mirroring each other in RAID1. I assume it's not top notch quality but it's enough secure for me.
Obviously I have also a bunch of backups at home.

 

western digital sells refurbished HDD/SSD travel sometimes.
They got warranty, and barely used (returns).

Check them, you can get some good buy ;D